Two Midnight Specials
Hey guys, Clint from Blue Lug Yoyogi here.
I recently went on a day camp trip with the boys.
I met up with Cent and Takuma at the Baji-park and rode for an hour to this good camping spot.
We got some tasty meat on our way to the spot. We just grilled and ate them. It was great to get away from the work shop full of bike maintenance chemicals and get fresh air from outside.
Anywho…Let’s get into the main topic of the blog. I wanted to write about the Surly Midnight Special.
You all know the Surly Pacer (R.I.P.), but did you know that the Midnight Special is actually the successor of the Pacer?
I recently built one up for myself.
*SURLY* midnight special (50)
If you ask my favorite part about this bike, I would definitely say its the Stridsland Barnacle Fork.
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I’m sure you have heard of the Danish bike company before at some point.
This masculine fork is one of their creations.
Just look at all those braze-ons.
When I first saw these forks at the shop, I couldn’t help but to simulate which bike we carry would look good with this fork.
Crust Evasion, Bombora…Maybe a Surly Cross Check?
Around the same time that the Barnacle Forks arrived, I was in a “I really wanna ride a Surly phase”. I thought about bringing my Disc Trucker back to life, but I was also very intrigued by the ATB genre of bikes.
The Surly bikes I had was the Steamroller and the Disc Trucker, which were a bit far from an ATB.
I thought deeply, which Surly bike can work as an ATB…
And there I was, shooting for this video.
The Midnight Special was the answer to the question.
I chose the Forager Cycles Jemmy Bar for this build. The handlebar is 860mm wide (insane!) but I cut them down to 800mm (still insane!)
I didn’t want to cut too much, so I’m keeping it in this length.
It was hard for me to decide the wheel size, but I went with 700c, since I had a bunch of 650b bikes.
I was afraid that the 700c wheels would fit the Stridsland fork, but it worked out.
I chose the Cane Creek ee Wings Road Cranks. Not gonna lie, they are expensive, but it’s also worth it.
Boom. How ya like the bike? It was very fun to ride for the camp trip.
I also built the same bike for the shop.
*SURLY* midnight special (50)
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This build was heavily inspired by the bikes of the Genosack crew. Sweep bars on vintage MTBs with either a zeitgeist bag or a basket. I’m just a huge fan of their freedom-ness.
I had Konno-san from Cook Paint Works do the cool metallic purple paint job.
The Crust Bikes Ron’s Ortho Bars just so happened to appear on the shelves of Blue Lug, so I had to use them on this build. The 690mm super comfy bars are great match with wide tires, and of course the Zeitgeist Bag from Swift Industries.
I call this the Mt. Fuji stack!
11s GRX components with the Blue Lug YMC crank. They look pretty good and has narrow wide chainrings, so it gets the job done.
Teravail Rutland Tires, 27.5″ x 2.1″. This is the widest tire this bike can fit.
WTB Pure-V saddle in the Jah color-way to add some more fun colors.
This one is also a bike on display at the Yoyogi-park store built by Cent. It’s a size 54 frame with 700 x 42c tires.
It’s probably the first time that two Midnight Specials are displayed in the shop. I want y’all to come and test out both same but totally different bikes!
Clint.
